Interference on speaker wire - Cause?

[DanU]

Speaker wire is an excellent antenna for picking up interference . Try using shielded coax.

I use unshielded wire from my computer to my amp and sometimes I'll pick up my neighbor's CB transmissions. It's actually quite funny listening in to his conversations. Sometimes I find myself trying to *enhance* the reception of this "interference".

[Tomteriffic]

I wouldn't doubt for a second that, with all the wireless stuff going on, that it's something else in the house and some better speaker wire might fix it. BUT... Try moving the amp away from the computer while it's unpluigged from the computer, and see if it makes a difference. Computers are loaded with RF emissions, as are monitors, and what with all the other stuff happening in the house, it may just be too much. On the other hand, moving the amp 6 inches might make all the difference.

Sometimes when I record electric guitar, I have to turn the monitor off while I'm doing a take, or stand at an exact, certain angle to the monitor not to get all kinds of hash and garbage in the track. So an amp picking some of this grunge up wouldn't be unheard of.

[OuTpaTienT]

If you goto the Klipsch web site and check their forums you'll see that people have been complaining of this problem since they first introduced their multimedia speakers. And I mean A LOT of people, including me. Actually along with my complaint I gave people a solution should they want to fix it themselves. I replaced the crappy wire with Monster Cable and also bypassed the headphones type plug that they used and soldered the wire directly to the terminals inside the speakers.

[AuraEdge]

Headphone type plug? you mean the 1/8 inch plug? Solder? where?

I probably wont do it, but im curious.

[caddmannq]

Sometimes those little plugs make sloppy contact. Even at their best, the curcuit isn't as "clean" as one with a 1/4" plug. An increase in resistance right at the plug will definately change the inductance of the wire, making it's properties as an antenna change.

BUT: Do your speakers even use those plugs? Or do they use plain wire, with screw terminals?

[AuraEdge]

My dad soldered the ends of the new wires for the rear when we installed them..I forgot about that...Maybe thats what helped it.

The Klipsch's hook up like this-

Computer -> Soundcard, using 3 1/8 inch plugs (Front L/R, Rear L/R and Center/Sub) plug into the amp's inputs, which is integrated into the sub. It is then output thru 5 pairs of speaker wire (normal, polarized...18 gauge i think) to the Satillites.
I bought the wire home today, but I forgot that I needed to solder them. I'll just wait til next time i see dad because I dont have a solder iron at home.

[Tomteriffic]

Spring clips probably, Cadd...

heehee, this is the last line on my resume:

1957: Learned which end of a soldering iron not to grab.

[OuTpaTienT]

AE, I'm assuming your Klipsch speakers connect the same way mine did. In the back of the sat's was a small (1/8th inch) jack. I completely removed that jack. In fact, here's a pic of one of them after I took it out of the speaker.



I removed it and ran my Monster Cable in through the hole and soldered it directly to the terminals where the plug used to connect to.

[OuTpaTienT]

Here's some threads at the Klipsch forums you might want to read:

http://216.37.9.58/ubb/Forum22/HTML/000110.html

http://216.37.9.58/ubb/Forum22/HTML/000190.html

http://216.37.9.58/ubb/Forum15/HTML/000624.html

[AuraEdge]

Actually it doesnt...
The speaker wire is at the back of each of the satillites
the only 1/8 plugs go from the amp to the sound card.
I guess they are different in more than just power.

For the satillite part, they are spring clips. (They spring right back into position if you push them down and let go..thats a spring clip right?). For these, you gotta pull down the clips, put the red and black wire in, and let go.
For the amp parts, the clips look the same, but theres an "open" and a "lock" position. They dont really spring back in place. You just set them to "open", set the wire in, and then push it up to "lock" position.
They look the same as the spring clips, but operate slightly differently.

Okay I looked around the whole web (erm...google) for a pic of the satillite inputs and the back of the sub where the amp is on the Klipsch 5.1's and I cant find anything. All the "full reviews" on these speakers just show copys of pictures that they ripped off the Klipsch site, none with thier own pics. They make have the pic somewhere on the Klipsch site, but its slow as molasses for me right now...Don't know why...

...EDIT...But Klipschonline.com is still flying...I discovered that the Satillite hookups are indeed springclips for 18 gauge wire.

And this

Speaker Wire
The Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 is designed for the next level of "PC Performance Audio." We felt it was important to allow the end user to upgrade speaker wire, if so desired. However, we have included quality oxygen-free copper 18 gauge wire for the demanding enthusiast. In all likelihood, we will offer another wire upgrade option at www.klipsch.com for your convenience.

It seems that the 2.1 and 4.1 came with 22 gauge wire according to this in the FAQ -

What kind of speaker wire does this system use—regular, thin speaker wire or a heavier gauge?
The provided wire lengths are 22 gauge. You could replace it with something heavier, but you will need to put a 1/8" (3.5mm) mono minijack on the satellite end, which kind of rules out the 10-gauge stuff.

And on the 5.1's specs -

WIRE GAUGE ACCOMODATED: 18 gauge supplied; will accept 14 gauge

Im starting to think its not the wire.
Also something odd happened today. I came home, and I still had that distortion. So I powered down, and then unpluged the 2 new 2.4Ghz phones. I then took out the connections and redid them, and powered them back on. At this point NOTHING but the sub made noise. I thought I blew the amp.
I reconnected again, and it worked fine, this time distortion free. I plugged the phones back in. Still distortion free.
I reconnected the wires like 4 or 5 times, so I still cant explain why all my satillites went out on me for that hookup. Its all working now and distortion free with the phones plugged in. I'll see what happens tommorrow.

BTW I went to Bestbuy and looked at monster cable...thats some expensive stuff, but it looks really hi-qual...they even give you a spool for a 25ft stretch of it. Dollar store gave me a twisty tie for a 25ft stretch. Im sure their not as good, but it was 1/12th of the price.